Pears
Pears
In one corner of the Monks' Garden by the original south facing wall there is a brown turkey fig. Just beyond, there are two large pear trees planted against the weather seasoned uneven bricks, aged by centuries.
Pear trees are usually grown for their delicious fruit but in springtime they are also covered with beautiful cream-coloured flowers, so they actually give two seasons worth of interest. In addition, pear wood is one of the preferred materials for the manufacture of high-quality woodwind instruments and furniture. It can also be used to make kitchen spoons, scoops and stirrers because it resists warping and splintering, despite repeated soaking and drying cycles. Neither does it contaminate food with colour, flavour or smell.
Pear trees can live for up to 250 years and are naturally medium sized trees but are often pruned into various shapes. Once upon a time there were around 3,000 known varieties of pears grown worldwide of various shapes and flavours. Pears are delicious fresh from the tree - you know when they are ripe because the flesh around the stem gives to gentle pressure - but they can also be poached for a pudding, baked or roasted, added to salads, canned, dried, made into jams and chutney and even fermented into an alcoholic drink known as perry, although these days that is less usual.
They have existed as a known food sources since prehistoric times. Two thousand years ago, Romans collected various recipes and they kindly introduced pears to Britain. Pliny (the Roman writer who is known to have published the first pear recipe) suggests stewing them with honey.
England’s best-known early pear is the Warden. It was first mentioned in the thirteenth century and is a firm-textured fruit which keeps well over winter which was much appreciated when the ability to preserve food was limited. In 1542, the Tudor physician Andrew Boorde wrote in his Dyetary of Health that that pears “comforted” the stomach and were nutritious roasted, stewed or baked.
Pirrie or pear cider was very popular and widely made in Sussex, Kent and Worcestershire so much so that in Worcestershire the pear’s importance to the local economy was recognised by its incorporation into Worcester City’s coat of arms.
Originally, pears were more popular in France than England and so many of the original varieties tend to have French names such as the Doyenné du Comice pear or Beurre Superfin and Beurre Hardy. However, the Victorian era saw a tremendous growth of interest in pear varieties in the UK with Head Gardeners such as Mr Pope at Highclere cultivating dozens, sometimes even over a hundred, different types to provide a succession of fresh fruit for the dining table. The Royal Horticultural Society in particular promoted pear cultivation and by 1826 had 622 varieties planted in their gardens.
In 1885, such was the British passion for pears. There was even a National British Pear Conference which took place in London. During this event Thomas Francis Rivers introduced a new cultivar called Conference which won first prize. These days the conference pear accounts for more than 90% of UK commercial production.
Sadly, the corollary of this is that many of the older varieties are now either critically endangered or completely lost. In addition, changing tastes and agricultural practices mean that hundreds of orchards have disappeared over the last 75 years. This is such a shame, not least for the fact that local English varieties often had the most wonderful names such as the “Huffcap" varieties or those named for the effects of their product - 'Merrylegs', or 'Mumblehead'.
Looking forward to Christmas, “A Partridge in a Pear Tree” is the first gift in the Twelve days of Christmas and a pear tree is a good gift, espaliered against a wall or adding to a corner of your garden.
33 Comments
Thank you for such an elequent pear history lesson.
You are kind- thank you for taking the time to read.
A favorite little salad, long popular here in the Deep South, is a pear half on a crisp lettuce leaf with a teaspoon of mayo dropped in the center, then garnished
with a cherry, or a sprinkle of nutmeg at Christmas! Thank you for your always thorough research on your subjects, Lady Carnarvon!
Marnie,
You just brought a picture to my mind’s eye of the pear salad of my childhood! My mother skipped the cherry, but I loved the pear salad. In those days, our pears were canned, but they were my favorite fruit!
Same here, Martha, ours were usually canned, but whenever available fresh ones. My mother sometimes used a bit of shredded cheese along with the cherry.
I am not sure if it is the salad itself, or simply the undeniable connection with my mother. Our holiday table is not complete without a lovely platter of these pears.
sounds delicious! :)
Same here, Marnie, except here in So. California my mom put cottage cheese in the center.
Val in CA.
Oh, my goodness! I remember that as a kid in Harbor City, CA!
As a child, I often saw my sweet dad having cottage cheese with chopped pears for lunch here in California!
Dear Lady Carnarvon,
Wow, I never knew there were so many varieties of pears!
That was a fascinating read, thank you - I wish you & all at Highclere a very happy Autumn Equinox,
Love
Caroline
Thank you, I thought it was a fascinating topic of discussion, given the lovely autumn weather
Lady Carnarvon,
Your writings, always a great way to start my Mondays. It's wonderful to learn new things.
I'm curious about the dessert photo. What ingredients are in that pear dessert?
It is very easy - red wine, sugar lemon juice and cinnamon in which you cook the pears and then take them out and reduce it until it is syruppy
Lady Carnarvon,
Here in North Carolina, our local grocery stores usually carry only d’Anjou and Bartlett. This interesting pear history lesson is fascinating to me, since pears have always been my favorite fruit, except when strawberries are in season!
Have a lovely summer day! Martha G.
To everything there is a season
Lady Carnarvon,
What a lovely history lesson wrapped up in a tasty fruit skin. I enjoyed your piece very much, thank you for taking your valuable time to keep us educated and thinking.
you are kind
Thankyou for the lovely pears story Lady Carnarvon!
I haven’t eaten pears in a while but I do have memories as a little girl of eating juicy pears from the orchards our parents used to like to frequent at Lakeland in Wollondilly Shire in NSW State!
Ooh what sweet lovely juicy pears! Our father loved pears so we would always have them in a fruit bowl and be encouraged to eat them up! I am inspired to seek out a pear tree to plant at the new property when I move in a few weeks from now!
Thanks again for the excellent blog!
Best wishes
FLEURINA DECORTES de GILBERT
Orange City Notth
Central Western NSW
Australia
Pear Trees are very hjappy growing up a wall too - plant a clematis with them and you have spring blossom, summer flowers and yummy fruit
Such an interesting story about the history of pears! Thank you. We have 2 Bartlett pear trees that I am picking today. So ripe, juicy and delicious.
Liebe Lady, Ihre Beiträge sind immer sehr interessant. Danke.
Ich bin sehr beeindruckt. Viele Grüße, Johanna
Danke sehr
Just stewed with home made custard......lovely.
Thank you
Yum!
Pears have long been a favorite in our household, but I didn’t know that they have such an interesting history. Thank you, Lady Carnarvon!
Definitely something to contemplate when I have my pear martini!…(pear vodka / elderflower / syrup) Thank you for your wonderful blog
That sounds delicious !
pears are so good.
We visited England last year and I enjoyed a wonderful "Perrie" with elderflower at the "Bluebell Railway's Beer Festival" in West Sussex. What a wonderful experience it was and one that we will never forget!!!
Thank you for a delightful lesson on English pears.
Your articles are always so pleasant and take me back to a different world .. which gets the imagination going.
Dear Lady Carnarvon,
I know you will be visiting Oregon soon and wanted you to know we're proud of our pear brandy. And the pear is our State fruit.
Best wishes,
Carol Giantonio, Eugene, OR
you are very kind
Lovely the pictures of pears and did you and lord Carnarvon have a wonderful weekend and looking forward to Christmas and lovely the Christmas song
and enjoyed the film Downton Abbey finale and lovely highcelere castle
So envious of the ripe off the tree pears you get. Here in So. California, our stores only sell the unripe ones that you have to wait until they do ripen. Canned pears are ok but not the same taste.
Val in California
I found this an interesting story. Pears are one of my favourite fruits.
Lady Canarvon, can you tell me what the comparison in taste might be between Pear Port and Pirrie? I am able to get Pear Port in North Carolina...but not a large variety of pears themselves. Thank you for the history lesson on Pears.
Thank you for sharing the history of pears! It's given me an idea to research the history of pumpkins, with this being the Autumnal Equinox. But right now, I'm hungry for a juicy pear!
Pumpkins are certainly wonderful and I am very excited to see our pumpkins in the garden when they are ready :)
Since moving to Oregon, I'm discovering and enjoying the varieties of fresh pears here. I love pear juice, pear pies, and pear cobblers. Thank you for sharing the history of pears in England. I hope you have a wonderful visit in Oregon soon. Unfortunately I will not be able to see you as I will be sailing with Viking on the Seine. Enjoy the Oregon pears!
Our tree exploded this year! In the past month
I’ve made three pear cakes, four crumbles and
a big batch of pear sauce, all using apple recipes.
We’ve given away quite a few bags also. Last year
we only had six lonely pears!
how marvellous!
Thank you for the praise of Pears. Such a lovely fruit. I hope there's a comeback for ancient seeds of Pears.
Hello from Western Washington State. In our tiny, rural area, we now have a producer of both apple cider and perry. It's quite popular.
As my husband shares the same name, we planted a ‘William’ pear in our garden over 50 years ago.
It had become very large and woody, so earlier this year I decided to espalier it, to great effect!
It went on to produce a few flowers and even four delicious pears…..not bad for its first year of regrowth!
how wonderful
Very interesting! I don't think we use pears often enough in our cooking. They get overlooked, I think!
I just finished making a batch of homemade butternut squash and bosc pear soup -- delicious and nutritious!
It's pretty easy: Remove skin and seeds from the squash and cut it into ca. 1" cubes. Add just a little diced onion and saute in a soup pan for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, peel, core, and quarter 3 pears. When the squash and onions have softened, add the pears, 4 cups of broth (chicken or vegetable for vegetarians/vegans). Bring to a boil and simmer 25 minutes. Add a dash of thyme (no more). Blend until completely smooth. Add salt and/or pepper to taste.
Lady Carnarvon,
Now you have me imagining a riff on summer pudding, but with pears and maybe blackberries. But maybe the pears on their own. Delicious in a crumble with some Bird's custard. Love your blogs. I haven't yet seen the latest Downton Abbey film, but will when it comes out on DVD.
Have a lovely week. (Hopefully your part of England is cooler than Texas. It's a hundred degrees here today and too hot for September).
Thank you for your elegant article on pears, a truly divine fruit. I had a pear tree on my property in Boulder, Colorado and have fond memories of the delicious creations that were produced from its bounty. A few of my favorites included a pear tarte tatin, sausage and pear stuffing and pears baked in cream. That last one was a simple and decadent dessert. Pear halves placed on top of butter, sugar and cream in a pie plate created a heavenly pear caramel when baked. Yum!
you are kind
So very interesting thank you
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Good morning, Lady Fiona,
I love pears.Wow,delicious...
Thank you.
Vila Alemã
Rio Claro-SP
Brasil.
They are yummy!
Great knowledge and learning more about pears never have guessed there were so many variety
Thank you for sharing